Decorating, in some ways, is like dating. At least according to Rita Konig. When the Elle Decor A-List designer first meets a new client, she embarks on what she calls a “stealth speed--dating exercise.” Even while she’s working on room plans, she’s also gleaning how her latest partners (in design) want to live, how they want to entertain, and how their families play, study, relax, and work in their home.
But redesigning the residence of her old friends Charles Aboah and Camilla Lowther was more like an extension of a long-term relationship than a new flame. The couple have lived in the same Notting Hill Victorian townhouse since the 1980s. Konig met Lowther, a fashion photographer booking agent whose clients include Juergen Teller and Tim Walker, two decades ago through a mutual friend. Konig was soon a regular at the Lowther-Aboah residence, both for Sunday lunches and late night dance parties. “When you’re that young, you move around in great gangs,” Konig says.